Legends
by terracannon876
Summary: One day, Masaru is brought to the Digital World in the wake of his best friend's disappearance. There, he searches for Touma, but is instead drawn into an adventure that brings him against the evil of the Digital World. AU, but with Digimon. Xover of diff seasons, main: 1 & 5.
1. In the Dark Void After an Endless Dream

Here's the Digimon fic that has been plaguing my mind since 9th grade. It's changed a lot since then, but I hope it's for the best. I have a previous draft of the first chapter on my lj, but I'm hoping both the plot and the writing style has improved since then.

This fic was inspired by a friend who introduced me to ToMaTo (and indeed, coined the term). This fic will be pairing, but it could even be read as purely friendship. The focus isn't on their relationship. Another reason is because I have also never written outright romance, but I'll let the characters decide as time goes on.

This fic will be part of a long series, if I get that far. In essence, this world is AU from all the seasons, but it will use characters from the first 5 seasons of the anime. Aside from not never having watched it in full, Xros Wars completely destroys previous world canons, so I will not be considering it or its canon in this story. The references to the different seasons, though, will appear over the series. **This fic will focus on characters from season 5 and 1**, with a single exception.

I think one of the greatest challenges of writing a complete AU that has extensive plot is the danger of going too far: changing things too far from the original, drifting off from your original idea so you have a never-ending tale, losing track of your storyline, etc. This is what I intend to practice here.

I love the original Digimon mythos, so I'll be working with that. The world will work in a mixture of the anime, games, original V-Pet material, and cards. I intend for this fic to have the same feel as Digimon, so I will be working with references whenever I can.

Because I have not seen the dub or read any subs for any of Digimon, my language and terminology used may be different from what you're used to. I will also not include any Japanese honorifics in this fic.

**Note:** This is a rewrite of the fic that I had posted in Sept. 2011. Those three chapters have always been placeholders for a "final draft," which I am hoping this is.

* * *

><p><strong>Code: 100<strong>

**In the Dark Void After an Endless Dream**

The wind was strong. His hair kept whipping back and forth over his face, and the mantle he was using as a cover continued to flap behind him, not providing any shield at all. Sometimes, he would have to squint just to see. Sometimes, the vague notion of goggles formed in his mind, but the thought was whimsical, and slippery like an eel to boot. It continually slipped from his grasp. He didn't know where the idea came from, and it bewildered him, and so he resolved to stop thinking about such stupid things altogether. It didn't help his situation, it didn't change what had happened, and it certainly wouldn't bring anyone back.

He continued to squint.

It never occurred to him to find shelter, to somehow avoid the gusts that threatened to sweep him off his feet and into the embrace of death. He just stood there on that cliff, day after day, looking off into the horizon as though it were a lost lover.

His notion of time had never been accurate before, and now the days fused with the nights and melded into weeks, months, years. He rarely left his vigil to nourish himself – the fact that it was very hard to die of starvation was one of the perks of a world made of data, 0s and 1s – and when he did, he always returned immediately.

Sometimes, he sensed others beside him. They approached him while he was there. Some were like him, pale-skinned and bipedal, and others weren't, but he never paid attention to them and so the exact details were lost in the hazy fog that was his mind nowadays. They may have talked to him, or they may have not. He wasn't sure. He didn't care.

It was hard to keep track of any thought for too long. His mind chased itself around in circles when he tried, and it always returned to the gaping hole inside him that he refused to acknowledge out loud, picking at the hurt like a scab.

So he shut his mind down, turned on autopilot, and just waited.

And waited.

Until one day, he startled awake to a pain he had only experienced once before. He placed his hand over his chest in wonder.

It was an ache, a gnawing on the tattered edges that surrounded the emptiness in him.

And instinctively, he knew what had caused it.

His partner was calling to him, needed him. Needed him to make the pain go away, trusted him with all his soul because that was what partners did and they were two parts of a whole and he just _knew_.

It had been so long since he'd last felt it, but there was no doubt in his mind. This was him. His other wasn't gone. He could fix things, make things better and bind it together with super glue and duct tape so that it never fell apart again.

He would do whatever it took.

One foot before the other, and for the first time in many years, the watcher left his post.


	2. Fighting Spirit! Agumon!

I don't think I've ever written any character so ... unique as Masaru before. It was fun, although he tended to derail dialogue and paragraphs with his digressions. Agumon wasn't so easy.

Please let me know what you think about the characterization and the story.

*pekori*

* * *

><p><strong>Code: 101<strong>

**Fighting Spirit! Agumon!**

Masaru knew he was nowhere near home.

Stones were digging uncomfortably into his spine, every jagged edge picking at the crevices of his backbone. Somehow, it felt like they were inching in further the longer he lay there. Going back to sleep was so enticing (it always was, no matter where he was), but, unable to endure the jabbing any longer, he sat straight up in a fit of frustration.

Unfortunately, he immediately regretted doing so when his head clunked against something hard. With a curse and a flop back to his previous position, rocks digging in harder than before, he looked up.

The offender was just a stupid tree branch.

He cursed, loud and clear and dirty enough his mom would probably want to clean his mouth out with soap later, but the question was, why was there a tree branch above him in the first place?

"This isn't my room…" he mumbled the obvious. At least that much was plain as day, even with eyes screwed shut. After shaking his head to ward off some of the stars dancing orbits around his head, he surveyed his surroundings.

What he saw was green, green, and more green. The scenery would have stolen his breath away had he cared any about beauty, but he didn't and instead of marveling at the unnaturally natural sight, he grew very suspicious very quickly. Everything was unfamiliar; in fact, he was pretty sure nowhere this rural existed in Japan, or at least not anywhere near Tokyo. Was he in one of the parks? Green and brown stretched as far as his eyes could see, and the ground was covered in needles and pebbles instead of black asphalt.

Taking care to avoid hitting his head in the same low-hanging branch again, he hefted himself up. A great yawn overtook him, and he couldn't avoid letting it go with a long stretch. His fatigue caught him by surprise. He hadn't realized he was so tired. It was still the middle of the day, and even if he did take naps sometimes, that was only during class. Come to think of it, why he was lying asleep in this wilderness, anyways?

"What was I doing right bef—" he mused before immediately cutting off, mouth forming an 'O' as memories bubbled up to the surface of his mind.

He'd been walking through the school after hours, looking for his best friend. He was going to be late for dinner that day, but his mom knew he was a responsible son (so long as he didn't come home with an assortment of purple and black patchwork for a face) and would cook extra, and she'd store it in the fridge, too, out of Chie's reach because Chie was a little brat of a sister who stole lunches that didn't belong to her.

It was about habit by now, searching for said friend throughout the school to drag back home for dinner. Touma, always reluctant to have any kind of fun, was always so busy every day with this school activity or that council, so tracking him down was something of an art he'd mastered. For example, his usual hangout for Wednesdays – today – was the computer lab.

Masaru had headed to the lab, feeling rather proud of himself for having his friend's schedule down pat and avoiding a lot of hassle, and just as he approached…

…he'd seen a giant burst of blinding light, white and sudden – but what was even more frightening was the startled yelp he'd heard from behind the doors.

Before the lights had even fully receded, Masaru had dashed to the doors. In retrospect, the handles could've been white-hot if it had been an explosion of some sort, but the thought had never even entered the teenager's mind when he threw the door aside, almost sending it off its rails.

He then saw an arm – An arm. A hand. Five fingers. – sticking out of the computer like a desolate antler. But the arm had sleeves and he knew it was the school uniform and no one from the school ever hung out around computers like they were the new best thing since fried eggs except…

And again, his brain had apparently switched off because while Masaru sat there with the butt of his pants stained brown and sporting a fresh red patch on his forehead, he could still feel the sensation of fingers just brushing past his.

"…Then I stuck my hand into the screen, too, I guess…" Masaru recounted to himself aloud. He looked up, through the mesh of needles that formed the canopy. He could hardly see the sky, but he still remembered a brief sensation of intense vertigo and heavy winds slapping his face.

Ah, there. Broken branches, a path cut straight from the skies and towards where he sat at the moment.

Even he felt vaguely impressed, he thought as he threw himself to his feet in a single bound. "Huh, guess I'm made of tougher stuff than I thought." He didn't think normal people could fall that far without at least getting somewhat hurt.

But then, even if he was tough as rock, that didn't mean his friend was.

Masaru wasn't too worried, though. Touma could outsmart his way out of everything.

Not that that meant he'd abandon him, of course.

"Touma?! If you hear me, answer me!"

Silence.

It'd been worth a shot, at least.

Logically – and it wasn't often Masaru used that word – since they'd gone through the same screen, then they should be somewhere near each other. But all those damn (no mom around, so all language filters were **off**) trees were blocking the view. He couldn't get a clear scope of the area.

One way was to climb the trees. But the trees were really tall, and there weren't enough lower branches to use as rungs. Deciding that his energy would be better put to other uses, he considered option number two. Knocking all the trees down would be very effective, but would probably take too long, so he scrapped that.

Option number three?

"Well, no point in staying here. I may as well go and see if I'll hit a road or something," he said to himself. A bit of a last resort and so boring a plan, but if it works…

The sun had been high when he'd landed – or at least, the sky beyond the green was still blue – but now it was a pink that heralded the coming of dusk. Unheeding of the slight chill on his bare arms, Masaru trudged onwards, calling Touma's name every now and then, though half-heartedly because he didn't really believe that the blond would actually hear him. It would be too good to be true.

Though, it did strike Masaru as strange that there was absolutely no noise in the strange forest. He at least expected some birds or squirrels or … what else lived in forests again? Tanuki? Bears? But no, the forest was devoid of squeak, chirp, or growl. The only sound that reached his ears was the crunch of his sneakers against the loose gravel, and even that was muffled by all the shed needles blanketing the ground. It was a tad unnerving, but Masaru was a manly man, so he didn't let the eerie silence unsettle him.

He did, however, keep his ears peeled more than ever before. You know, to stay alert. Because he could hear further with the silence. Not because he was unnerved, not at all.

When there was finally a burst of noise, it sent his feet shuffling backwards until his back slapped against the bark of a tree, his eyes narrowed and sliding left and right for the source of the disturbance, but … nothing moved. Not a branch, not a breeze, not a muscle.

Just as he was about to straighten and breathe a sigh of relief, though, another boom concussed his ears, and this time he swore he could feel the ground actually shake.

"The hell's going on?" he muttered to himself incredulously as he picked himself off his knees and tried to pick out at least a general direction. The explosion-like sounds must've been why it was so quiet earlier – the wildlife must've all been scared away.

He hoped Touma wasn't caught in anything rough. Smart talking to a bomb wasn't going to stop it from going boom.

Then, at the third rumble, Masaru managed to pinpoint where the commotion must have been, and – like any good, upstanding citizen, or at least any fighter worth his salt, no matter how self-proclaimed – instead of running away, he made a mad dash as fast as his legs could carry him straight for the ruckus. While he had a feeling that Touma wasn't caught in the ruckus, there was no way to be sure.

Now, in Masaru's sixteen years of life, he'd seen a lot, both up above and down below the normal levels of society. Not to say that he'd ever dabbled in the shadier sides of life, but fights were just better there, and one had to work to fulfill their life's passions somehow, so he'd never chickened out of an opportunity to prove his mettle.

But this … this was something different, something he'd never seen before.

He didn't think dinosaurs that **orange** existed.

And he was pretty sure dinosaurs never spat fire, back in Tokyo.

The little tyke (he was probably knee-high? Maybe a tad bigger) was putting up a pretty good fight, all things considering. His opponent…

And as Masaru's eyes slid over, he did a double-take.

That was a really big club. And that kid looked awfully green.

But despite his apparent abnormality, the boy (was he even a boy? Perhaps he was another strange-shaped dinosaur. He did look kind of scaly) was doing really well, whipping the club back and forth, keeping the dinosaur at bay.

And the reptile wasn't bad itself, skipping back and forth on nimble hind legs, keeping just out of range. Every now and then, it would duck in when the green boy swung too far, swiping with a large claw (was that a red training band…?). Usually, the kid's reflexes kicked in and he leaned one way or another to dodge, though the claw did catch skin once. Strangely enough Masaru couldn't see any blood, but he figured it was the distance that prevented him from seeing the red.

The pair struck and dodged, struck and dodged. Every time the club struck the ground, it rumbled and tress shook, raining down a new flurry of needles. Every time a burst of fire erupted, the flames crashed and exploded against the tree. Strangely enough they dissipated into the air, but the fireball was pretty small so Masaru didn't think much of it. His attention was caught on the strange creatures instead. Try as he might, he couldn't recall seeing anything like them in any books he'd read (or flipped through, looking for pictures before calling it quits).

There weren't many hits that landed, but as Masaru watched on, he could tell both were getting pretty tired. Their chests heaved, and their movements grew sluggish. And he was starting to get pretty bored. There was definitely no Touma around, and this fight was getting nowhere. Maybe he should speed things up a bit.

The teenager bent over and picked up what he assumed was a rock, even if it was a bit weirdly colored. He tested its weight, casually tossing it up into the air and catching it again, as he considered his options. Unfortunately, between a dinosaur and a green kid, it was pretty hard to decide which side to distract. After a moment's consideration, he reeled back and, in a loud _swhoosh_, let the pebble fly.

It caught the green boy straight between the eyes.

The kid teetered a bit left, tottered a tad right, its hands grasping air as his eyes focused on a particular spot in the air only he could see. The dinosaur stared on incredulously at the apparent _deus ex machina_, but, before its opponent could regain its bearings, it took a great inhale and breathed out a great spit of flame that enveloped the boy.

Masaru sucked in a harsh breath as the boy gave a shriek and, without much ado, vanished in a burst of black.

Did he … just die?

He stared as the dinosaur stood still, seemingly contemplating the disappearance of his opponent before turning its muzzle back. Finally, after some time, its eyes lifted from the spot where the boy had stood and searched through the forest, and then, probably because Masaru was wearing red against a background of green and brown, focused on him very quickly.

Masaru shook his head. Now wasn't the time to let his weak doubt get to him – 'Had he helped the right side?' and other such fluff. The reptile was now stomping across the blanket of needles and heading straight towards him, and judging from his actions earlier, it would have no qualms about snuffing him out.

_Clomp_, _clomp_, _clomp_. Closer and closer, the dinosaur approached at surprisingly agile speed, though Masaru supposed that was only to be expected after he'd seen it fight. He breathed a chuckle that he couldn't help and raised his fists. Touma was still missing, but he could wait a minute or two, right? The midget lizard wouldn't stand a chance. It'll be done in no time. Heartbeat skipping in anticipation, Masaru made up his mind and, without warning … he shot off away from his now-useless hiding place.

His legs were longer, and so he had the advantage of speed and range no matter how fast the fire-breathing dinosaur scuttled. Briefly, the teenager worried about the only advantage the dinosaur had – the fireball it'd shot off that'd created those rocking explosions that'd alerted him in the first place. In the next instant, though, his concern vanished. No problem. He'd punch the creature's mouth shut before it could even try.

He was now at the dinosaur's flank, although it wasn't long before the reptile turned its long head to face him. He wasn't making more noise than usual (it was surprisingly muffled for all his admitted carelessness, probably because of the matted needles), so he was surprised those tiny ears could pick up his movement. Although, perhaps those giant nostrils made up for its hearing with their sense of smell.

He rushed in, closing the distance as fast as he could, which was pretty damn fast if he did say so himself. He raised his fist. And then he saw the muzzle open, and red hot light started gathering between the sharp teeth.

He instantly leapt to the left. The ground burst into a shower of splinters and needles where he'd just been. He landed in a roll, immediately returning to his feet again. He faltered, the explosion causing the ground to rumble a bit, but not a breath later, he continued moving.

His punch, infamous in his neighborhood and winning him reputation as the Fighting King there, sent his enemy flying. It soared through the air, crashing into the mottled trunk behind him with a loud _crunch!_ before thudding to the ground.

Breathe in, breathe out. In … out… Masaru slowed his excitedly beating heart down as best he could, though he kept his fists raised just in case.

There wasn't any movement from his opponent.

His attempts weren't really working. He tried to hold still, adrenaline still coursing through his blood, but it was being driven by a frantically pumping organ only too happy for any sign of the battle continuing.

He wiped the ecstatic grin off his face, though it was like a clingy girl, refusing to leave and always rebounding back.

When the dinosaur didn't make any more movement, Masaru let himself pump a fist into the air.

"Oh yeah! Not only am I fighting king of the neighborhood, I've even beaten a dinosaur! No one can beat that!"

He knew that it was only because he was alone he was able to holler such an embarrassing boast aloud. But since he was alone, he didn't particularly care.

It was then said dinosaur groaned.

Masaru jumped, surprised. A human would've been completely knocked out from that blow… But then, he reconsidered, it was a dinosaur and all, so maybe he shouldn't be surprised.

He hesitatingly shuffled towards his fallen opponent, a loose guard back in place. He was just about standing next to the orange reptile and ready to poke at it with his foot when the creature made another moan.

Then it talked.

"…can't believe I lost… Me! Agumon! Lose to this … this pale, fleshy human…!"

Its voice was male, a strange middle between nasal and gravelly. It sounded none too happy, and exceedingly disappointed.

After his brain had managed to process the words coming out of the **dinosaur's mouth**,Masaru's eye twitched at the derogatory tone. Unable to help himself, he retorted, "Hey, watch it, lizardface! This 'pale, fleshy human' here totally kicked your ass, hands down!"

A large leather-covered claw rubbed at the top of the lizard's snout as it (he?) growled what sounded like a whimper. Masaru almost felt a twinge of sympathy, but having been in far too many fights in the past, he knew better than to feel too much for his opponent if they weren't friendly spars. Sitting up, the dinosaur worked his stubby tail under and around and sat on his butt before flopping backwards with an _oomph_. Despite his completely defeated position, his olive green eyes nevertheless flashed open in a vicious glare. "Yeah, well… You cheated. That Goblimon wasn't even down two seconds before you rushed me, cheater!" he spat with a clamp of his jaws for emphasis.

"And it was because of me you won anyways." Deciding that keeping his guard up would be useless at this point because of the lack of hostility, Masaru relaxed, folding his arms as he shifted his weight onto another foot. "What were you two fighting about anyways? You completely roasted him to ashes." While Masaru had seen all states of injury, seeing someone die like that was … unexpected, to say the least.

"What, did you expect us to kiss and make up?" the dinosaur scoffed. "And I don't need a reason. He was a Goblimon. That's reason enough." His lips pulled back in a snarl, revealing teeth as jagged as the rocks he'd been lying on earlier. "And don't think I'm gonna thank you for that! I had him! I had him right where I wanted!"

It was Masaru's turn to snort. "You're welcome. From where I was standing, the fight was getting awfully boring. You're fast, but you put way too much weight behind your swings. You're just asking to get whacked over the head with that club of his."

Surprisingly, instead of brushing Masaru's words aside like he'd expected, the lizard sat up, propping himself on his arms since his tail was still hanging out in front under him (it must be tough having a stubby tail like that, thought Masaru). He seemed to pause, thinking. "What else?"

Taken aback, Masaru only replied with a "What what?"

"What else d'you see?"

Masaru considered the question. "Well, you've got those awesome fire-breathing powers, but you don't even use them. Isn't that a waste?"

The dinosaur barked a harsh laugh. "Yeah, well, unlike **most** Agumon out there, I like to let my claws and teeth do the talking. They're more reliable than some fire that falls flat if you're feeling the least bit tired."

Even Masaru's natural open-mindedness had limits, and he had to admit he was starting to grow curious. "Agumon… That's like, a fire-breathing dinosaur?"

"**Reptile**. We're Reptile Digimon. And an Agumon's a Digimon like me." A not-so-nice smile worked its way around those long teeth. "I'm surprised you haven't heard of our species. Thanks to a certain **someone**, we're pretty famous now."

"What's a Digimon? Monsters?"

At this question, the newly-named Agumon paused. The grin gradually dissolved off his face as his narrowed eyes scanned Masaru up and down, taking in his rather neat clothes that, while comfortable, weren't really adventuring material. "You're new around here, aren't you?"

"Well, this is my first time in this forest, yeah. I'm not really sure how I got here, though. I mean one minute I'm in Tokyo, and the next … well, I'm guessing this isn't Tokyo, but I could be wrong?" Masaru said as he looked around him at the towering pine trees again. The light was starting to fade away to dark, but he could see stars peeking out from beyond the mesh of black up above.

"To…kyo? That's … the human world, I'm guessing?" Agumon shook its head. "No, this is the Digital World. You know, where Digimon live. You're in a whole 'nother dimension, human."

Even Masaru paused at that. That was unexpected. Strange. Though ultimately, it changed nothing, really. But still … strange. Did that mean Touma was stuck somewhere in this other-dimension "Digital World" with these "Digimon," too? He knew Touma would be smart on his toes, but would he be OK against monsters?

Agumon continued, bringing Masaru back from his thoughts. "Figures. Didn't recognize you, so I thought you were just one of those humans that stayed in our world after the last war that I didn't know, but didn't know you were a complete greenhorn." The dinosaur Digimon finally managed to get on its feet, having recuperated enough energy, and looked up as a claw met its chin in thought. "But man, I didn't know humans could fight this good. The ones who came before…" He trailed off, giant foot tapping intermittently.

Masaru waited, but his patience soon wore thin. After a pause, he broke the silence. "So … what was that kid you fought? He looked human, but…" He was green.

"Goblimon? You thought that ugly Virus was a human?" Agumon barked a raspy _Hah!_ "And here I thought you had good eyes when you nailed him dead in the forehead! That thing looks nothing like a human!"

"I know what a human 'looks like,' lizard brain. How the hell would I know there'd be monsters here?!"

The dinosaur looked at him skeptically. "Why'd you throw the bananut at him, then, if you thought he was the human?"

"The bana-what?"

"The thing you threw. It's a nut that grows on these trees."

Masaru paused at that. He could've sworn cones grew on pine trees… But before he digressed too far, he shook his head and went back to Agumon's question. "Oh. Well…" Masaru scratched his head casually. "You're orange, and he's green, and orange's awesome, like 'Hero of Justice!' fire, and green's… Green's just icky, like puke, or pea soup. So I figured, if I don't know either of you and you two were getting absolutely no where in the fight, I'd just toss my two cents in to hurry up the inevitable. Didn't know you were going to **kill** him, though."

"He deserved it. But wait …that's it? Just instinct?"

"Hey, I trust my life with these instincts!" Masaru declared rather loudly, his index finger pointed straight at Agumon. "And it's a good an idea as any! How the hell would I know what the hell was going on, when there's fire-breathing dinosaurs talking and green kids swinging around stubby clubs… For all I know, there could've been a movie filming going on or something!"

"A movie? Why would we ever do that with real attacks?"

Masaru threw his hands up in the air with a groan. "Don't ask me. I'm apparently the only human here."

Agumon cocked his head. "Well, I wouldn't say that. Like I said, there's been a few humans here before, and some of 'em are still hanging around."

This caught Masaru's attention. "There's other humans still here? You don't know if there's a blond one, do you?"

"'Blonde?'"

"Yellow hair."

"Ah," Agumon muttered. His eyes narrowed darkly and, in a sulky voice, he said, "Yeah. There's one in Valor Citadel. He's got wood-colored hair, kinda like a Patamon's fur."

Masaru had no idea what a "Patamon" was, but if he was blonde, then he might be Touma. And even if he wasn't, he might have an idea where a rogue human might be. Likes stay with likes usually, right?

The short Digimon looked up at the human, thinking. If Masaru wasn't so caught up in his own musings, he'd have noticed the cogs working in Agumon's brain. After a moment, the Reptile Digimon asked, uncharacteristically hesitant, "So, whatcha planning on doing now?"

"Probably gonna head over to that City thing you mentioned. I came here looking for a friend and I might find something there. You wouldn't happen to have seen him, would you? He came here before me."

"A friend, huh…" Agumon muttered to itself. "I haven't seen any humans recently at all since I've been away from the Citadel, but…" Again, a pause. "You seem like a good guy."

Masaru raised an eyebrow at the non sequitur.

"And you're strong. The Citadel's really tough on Viruses looking for trouble, but since you're human, I think they'll welcome you with open arms." Agumon did a finger-less version of twiddling thumbs, claws-only. "I've been looking to get outta town for a while now, so I was thinking maybe I could take you there. You need to go somewhere, I need to leave, and two's better than one and all that, right?"

"You're saying you'll take me to this City place?"

Agumon stomped impatiently. "Yes, that's what I'm saying! You're a good guy, and you're looking for your friend, right? That's only something a good guy'd do, and—"

Masaru shrugged. "Sure."

"—you'll need someone to fight with you against— …Huh? Really?"

"Yeah, sure. You don't seem like a bad guy, and you're not bad yourself. Even if you did lose to me. And even if you did kill that kid-mon back there"

Agumon growled, not happy at the reminder of his loss, but he couldn't help a, "It's Goblimon, and the Virus deserved it." His lips covered back his snarl again, albeit slowly, forcing himself to change the subject. "We should head back before it's completely dark. The others're probably starting to worry, and it's not really safe out at night. Never know what might come out."

"What, like vampires or soul-sucking demons or something?" Masaru asked jokingly.

Instead of laughing along, the dinosaur muttered, "Probably," and started off again with nothing to show but a slight limp.

Masaru's grin slipped off into a face of incredulity, but he just followed after the Digimon leading the way with a quiet, "…Seriously? Vampires and demons?" Briefly, he imagined his friend camping out somewhere in the woods with a ghost of some sort hanging around his tent. Somehow, he couldn't make the ghost look vicious and the image warped into Touma and the ghost having a late-night chat over hot chocolate and marshmallows. The thought made his stomach growl.

Agumon ignored him, or perhaps he just didn't hear. "There's a city near here. The Nature Spirits run it, and it's a good place. Should be safe, since there's lots of strong Digimon there. We can spend the night there before heading out the next day. You up for that?"

"Huh?" Masaru looked up, having lost track of the conversation. "Um … yeah, sure."

If the dinosaur had eyebrows, one would be raised skeptically. "You weren't listening at all, were you?"

Masaru wasn't one to lie. "Nope, not a word."

Agumon could only sigh, and the pair continued picking their way through the trees at an agonizingly slow speed in silence, the Digimon having given up on conversation, and the human too caught up in amusing himself with strange, imagined adventures involving his missing friend to miss the jabber.


End file.
